The Best Books for Literacy-Based Therapy intervention in Speech Therapy

My favorite contextualized language intervention approaches to use as an elementary school based SLP is Literacy Based Therapy + Narrative Language Intervention!

Literacy-based therapy and narrative language intervention not only provide multiple opportunities to support communication skills in a meaningful way, but they also help build essential language skills in a fun and engaging way!

To make your planning easier, I’ve curated a list of fantastic books that I think are some of the best books you can use in speech therapy each month of the year!

I've also suggested some skills that are perfect for targeting with each book.

Whether you're looking to improve articulation, language comprehension, vocabulary, pragmatic skills, or narrative skills, these carefully selected books will provide the perfect context for your therapy sessions!

The Best Books For Speech Therapy

🔴 August - Back to School

🟠 September - Pirates & apples

🟡 October - Fall & Halloween

🟢 November - Food & Thanksgiving

🔵 December - Winter & Christmas

🟣 January - Hibernation & Fairy Tales

🔴 February - Dragons & Valentine's Day

🟠 March - Spring

🟡 April - Earth Day & Dinosaurs

🟢 May - Space

🔵 June - Summer

🟣 July - Camping & Zoo Animals

August - Back to School

Favorite Book: 🖍️ How the Crayons Saved the School

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation

Resources: Printable book companion

Honorable Mention: 🦃 Turkey Goes to School (book companion)

September - Pirate & Apples

Favorite Pirate Book: 🏴‍☠️ Pirate's Perfect Pet

Skills: story grammar & retell, various settings, "where" questions, vocabulary, past tense verbs, adjectives, describing, conjunction "but," /r/ sound

Resources: Printable book companion

Honorable Mention: 🏴‍☠️🐿️ Squirrel Me Timbers (book companion)

Favorite Apple Book: 🍎 Apple Trouble

Skills: story grammar & retell, comprehension questions, vocabulary, synonyms & antonyms, describing, adjectives, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but, teamwork/cooperation

Resources: 

Printable book companion

Digital book companion

Craftivity

Pre-reading activity ideas

October - Fall & Halloween

Favorite Fall Book: 🐿️ The Golden Acorn

Skills: story grammar & retell, wh questions, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunction "but," teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ and /r/ vocalics

Resources: 

Free book guide

Digital book companion

Honorable Mention: 🎃 The Biggest Pumpkin Ever (book companion)

Favorite Halloween Book: 🎃 Turkey Trick or Treat

Skills: story grammar & retell, multiple attempt sequences, wh questions, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunction "but," teamwork/cooperation, figurative language, articulation /r/ blends

Resources: 

Free book guide

Printable book companion

Digital book companion

Honorable Mention: 🧹 How to Catch a Witch

November - Food & Thanksgiving

Favorite Food Book: 

🌮 Little Taco Truck

Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, describing, adjectives, compare & contrast, antonyms, conjunctions and/but, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation

Resources: free book guide, book companion

Favorite Thanksgiving Book: 🦆 No Turkey for Thanksgiving

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunction "but," problem solving, emotions, articulation "er" and "k" sounds

Resources: book companion

Honorable Mention: 

🦇 Fangsgiving

December - Winter & Christmas

Favorite Winter Book: 

🐻‍❄️ Polar Bear Island

Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, describing, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but/after, diveristy & inclusion, articulation /r/ vocalics

Resources: 

Free book guide

Digital book companion

Honorable Mention: ☃️ Sneezy the Snowman (book companion, adaptive book visuals)

Favorite Christmas Book: 

🎄 The Great Reindeer Rebellion

Skills: story grammar & retell, multiple attempts, summarizing, vocabulary, describing, subjective pronouns he/they, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions but/so/after, rhyming, articulation /s/

Resources: Build a Reindeer extension activity for younger students & AAC users

Honorable Mention: 🎅🏽 How to Catch Santa Claus (free book guide)

January - Hibernation & Fairy Tales

Favorite Hibernation Book: 

🐻 Bear Snores On

Skills: sequencing, synonyms, antonyms, prepositions, third person singular verbs, conjunction "but," subjective pronoun he, articulation /k/ and "air"

Resources: Printable book companion

Favorite Fairy Tale Book: 

🪄 A Cooked Up Fairy Tale

Skills: story grammar & retell, wh questions, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunction so/but, sequencing

Honorable Mention: 🧌 Jellybeans for Giants (free book guide)

February - Dragons & Valentine's Day

Favorite Dragon Book: 🐉 How to Catch a Dragon

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunction but/so/after, subjective pronoun he, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ sounds

Resources: 

Digital book companion

Free book guide

Honorable Mention: 🌮 Dragons Love Tacos (book companion)

Favorite Valentine's Day Book: ♥️ Turkey's Valentine Surprise

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, synonyms, antonyms, describing, prepositions, past tense verbs, conjunctions and/but, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, figurative language

Resources: Printable book companion

Honorable Mention: 🐐 Mr. Goat's Valentine (free book guide)

March - Spring

Favorite Book: 🥕 Too Many Carrots

Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, sequencing, vocabulary, prepositions, past tense verbs, subjective pronoun he, conjunctions and/but/so/after, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation

Resources: 

Book visuals

Digital book companion

Honorable Mention: 🍀 Bear Wants More

April - Earth Day & Dinosaurs

Favorite Earth Day Book: 

🗑️ Rocket Says Clean Up

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, verbs, conjunction so, subjective pronoun she, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ blends & /l/ blends

Resources: Digital book companion

Honorable Mention: ♻️ Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug (free book guide)

Favorite Dinosaur Book: 

🦖 How to Catch a Dinosaur

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, verbs, conjunction but/after/so, subjective pronoun she, problem solving, teamwork/cooperation, articulation /r/ blends & /l/ blends

Resources: 

Digital book companion

Build a Scene extension activity for early language skills & AAC users

may - Space

Favorite Book: 

☄️ Rocket Says Look Up

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunctions so/after, subjective pronoun "she"

Resources: Digital book companion

Honorable Mention: 🚀 There Was an Old Astronaut That Swallowed the Moon

June - Summer

Favorite Book: 🍋 Cooler Than Lemonade

Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, describing, plural nouns, third person singular verbs, compare & contrast, conjunctions and/but/so/after, problem solving, articulation /f, k, l/ & "sh" sounds

Resources: 

Free book guide

Printable book companion

Honorable Mention: 🏖️ How to Code a Sandcastle

July - Camping & Zoo

Favorite Book: 

🌲 A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee

Skills: story grammar & retell, summarizing, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, past tense verbs, conjunction "and", subjective pronoun they

Resources: 

Digital book companion

Camping Early Language Activities

Honorable Mention: 🏕️ The Camping Trip

Favorite Book: 

🐵 The Monkey Who Saved the Zoo

Skills: story grammar & retell, vocabulary, prepositions, plural nouns, making predictions, conjunction and, problem solving, subjective pronoun he, sequencing

Resources: Animal Early Language Activities

Honorable Mention: 🦁 My Room is a Zoo

I hope this has been helpful! Happy reading! 📖